The Conference Organising Committee is pleased to announce the first of our Keynote Speakers for QASELCON18.

Dr Bonnie Billingsley

Dr. Bonnie Billingsley, a professor at Virginia Tech, is a faculty member in the School of Education in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Dr Billingsley is a former special education teacher and administrator. She has taught in both leadership and teacher education programs at the graduate level. She has also authored numerous articles, chapters, as well as books on topics related to principal leadership for inclusive schools, teacher retention induction. She is a coauthor of Handbook of Leadership and Administration for Special Education. Her research findings have appeared in journals such as Exceptional Children, The Journal of Special Education, Exceptionality, The Journal of Special Education Leadership, and Remedial and Special Education. She has collaborated about special education leadership and teacher development with numerous universities, State Departments of Education, and research centers over the past 25 years.

Dr Neil Carrington

Dr Carrington was the Harvard Club of Australia Fellow for 2012/2013. He was awarded this prestigious scholarship to attend the CEO program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Business. Dr Carrington is currently the CEO of a national charity ‘ACT For Kids,’ an organisation dedicated to supporting abused and neglected children. He most recently was the Foundation National Director of the Leadership Centre for the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). He graduated originally as a teacher and has taught in schools as diverse as Cunnamulla, Townsville, Roma and London.

Dr Carrington spent over 3 years as Queensland University of Technology’s Director of Teaching and Learning with university wide responsibility for teaching quality, staff development and online learning services for over 40 000 students. Neil has held academic teaching and leadership positions at a number of universities including, University of New England (Director of School Experience), and the University of Western Sydney. He was the Chair of the Teaching and Learning Committee for the Australian Technology Network of Universities.

He was invited to work with the New Zealand Elite Coaching Academy and the coach of the All Blacks commented Neil’s leadership workshop was the best he had ever attended. He has presented at over 600 conferences throughout Australia and in the UK, Middle East, USA, NZ and across Asia. Dr Carrington has a postgraduate qualification in Special Education, a Masters degree in Education as well as a Masters degree in Educational Psychology. His PhD into perceptions of intelligence was judged one of the largest and most rigorous studies of its type ever undertaken in Australia.

Wenn’s has worked in the autism field for over 25 yrs. His workshops and training in Australia and internationally, focus on autism related to: Ageing; Gender differences, Gender variance; Learning & Living.